Ugugug Ugug

It’s my term of endearment with Nat.  There’s a story behind the name which only the two of us know.  It has been constantly evolving, adding syllables, flipping back and forth between Ug and Eg, and going with a tune we call ‘snake charmer,’ which – again – only the two of us know how it came about. 

 

This is just one of the silly things we do together – making up names.  We often laugh at things that only we can understand the humour behind each of them.  She’ll make me laugh until my tummy ache or until both of us fall from our chairs, or until we cry from laughing too hard.  I’d cry when she cries and then we would laugh after crying.  Having grew up practically together with a 2-year gap, we had shared lots of good moments together, also some not-so-good ones which we both would just laugh about when we look back at them.  I have a pregnant recollection of these moments and all those things I miss doing with her.

 

 

-          US, China, Japan, Taiwan & Hong Kong, trips we always go together

-          Spending recess together, walking away and still looking back until we lose sight of each other

-          Going to your classroom in Grade 5 after somebody has stolen my bag, and cry

-          Buying tempura and gulaman from Brown Gate after dismissal

-          Pinching you with my long nails when we were little

-          Singing along to your Chinese songs, when you were still a “wedding singer”

-          Being pokpok on the head with your mic

-          “Guilty as a broken bean”

-          Our Ama Angkong is alive jingle

-          “I feel faint, I… I… “

-          “Oh a really muems”

-          Name-calling Dich with Tiki, Porcy, Elaine, Achaku

-          Your impersonations

-          Playing mooncake dice game using the things in our study room

-          Hiding notebooks from Tutor

-          Folding Lifesavers as lagay for Tutor when you got a failure letter

-          Memorizing Miss Universe interview segments, pretending we were the contestants, host, even the interpreters

-          Dressing up our Barbies as Miss U contestants

-          Your first Angel Face Barbie and my Pretty in Pink and all our other Barbies

-          Memorizing Biology and Dentistry terms with you

-          Laughing at me when I cried after taking the jeep from school

-          Wearing same clothes, just different colours

-          Sharing and not wanting to share clothes

-          Shouting “don’t come!” when we bathe

-          Celebrating our birthdays at the same time each year

-          Taking our pick of Sanrio items by jack-and-poy

-          Collecting Sanrio together

-          Buying the same cellphone and the same camera

-          Keeping us updated on the happenings back home

-          Reading your emails where you discuss in detail parties you attended, what dishes were served, who went and who wore what

-          Showing us different things through your webcam

-          Criticizing on Sunday mornings, church day!

-          Shopping together where you always end up buying more than I do

-          Getting lost in Malate looking for Pan Pac because we wanted to eat at Mini Shabu Shabu

-          “Alex, Alex, puro ka na lang Alex” (a line from Alice Dixon’s movie) that, corny as it sounds, we say whenever we wanted to go to Alex III

-          That lunch we had at Edsa Shang’s Summer Palace

-          Having J.E.E. Lapids chicharon or the balot vendor’s chicha, Kropek, fish balls, etc.

-          Frequenting Balay Bacolod for its chicken, chicken skin and the free batchoy soup

-          Charming waiters at restos for more free soup

-          Sharing a Hungarian sausage at Frio Mixx

-          Trying and discovering new restos, new shops and new things

 

Despite the different time zone and the distance between us, these memories and more bring us together making it easy to pick up just anywhere we have left off.